DOCTORS’ leaders urged local authorities yesterday to introduce fluoride into water supplies to stem a dramatic rise in the number of children having milk teeth removed in hospital because they are so badly decayed.
Tens of thousands of young children are now having multiple extractions of rotten teeth each year, a problem blamed on increasingly sugary diets, especially sugary drinks in feeding bottles, and poor dental hygiene.
In one recent case a four-year-old child in Glasgow had to have all its teeth removed. Other dentists have described the levels of painful decay suffered by some children as tantamount to child abuse.
Dentists and other health experts called on councils to enforce new legislation permitting fluoride to be added to water supplies, which they said would dramatically reduce the levels of tooth decay in the worst areas.
A survey conducted by the Radio 4 Today programme showed that the situation is worst in Scotland; northwest England and Wales are also badly affected. All three areas have little flouridated water.
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Responding to growing concerns about dental health, the Government last year amended the Water Bill 2003 to force water companies to fluoridate supplies where the local communities choose it. The option has now been put out to consultation across the country.
An audit found that about 2,000 under-fives in Glasgow every year were having an average of between seven and eight milk teeth removed, with some requiring all 20 teeth out.
David McCall, a consultant in dental public health in Glasgow, said: “Children are having general anaesthetics (and) teeth removed (because of) a preventable disease.”
Another black spot identified in the BBC survey was Sheffield, where the local children’s hospital carries out a complete extraction of milk teeth on one child each week and removes an average of six from 24 others.
Research by the British Dental Association, a strong advocate of fluoridation, revealed that Bradford, Manchester and Bury have the worst dental health for five-year-olds, with each child having an average of three decayed, missing or filled teeth.
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The West Midlands, which has high fluoridation rates, has among the lowest levels of decay, with an average of less than one tooth per child.
While some campaigners argue that the loss of milk teeth is not a serious problem because they fall out anyway, most dentists say that the severe pain suffered by many children is evidence enough of the need to tackle the problem.
Hilary Whitehead, of East Lancashire Community Dental Service, said that she was shocked by two children, aged just over two, whom she treated on the same day. “One had eight teeth out, and the other six. They were in pain; they had abscesses on their teeth. I really feel it is child abuse.”
Professor Liz Kay, chairwoman of the British Dental Association’s Health and Science Committee, said: “Water fluoridation is the single most effective public health measure against tooth decay.”